Overview

Overview

The first of three volumes, containing the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations in Engand and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland.

Since the sixteenth century, the governments and established churches of the British Isles have summoned the nation to special acts of public worship during periods of anxiety and crisis, at times of celebration or for annual commemoration and remembrance. These special prayers, special days of worship and anniversary commemorations were national events, reaching into every parish in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Ireland. They had considerable religious, ecclesiastical, political, ideological, moral and social significance, and they produced important texts: proclamations, council orders, addresses and - in England, Wales and Ireland - prayers or complete liturgies which for specified periods supplemented or replaced the services in the Book of Common Prayer. Many of these acts of special worship and most of the texts have escaped historical notice. National Prayers. Special Worship since the Reformation, in three volumes, provides the edited texts, commentaries and source notes for each of the nearly nine hundred occasions of special worship and for each of the annual commemorations. The first volume, Special Prayers, Fasts and Thanksgivings in the British Isles 1533-1688, has an extended Introduction to the three volumes and a consolidated list of all the occasions of special worship. It contains texts and commentaries which reveal the origins of special occasions of national worship during the Reformation in both England and Scotland, the development of fast days and wartime prayers later in the sixteenth century, and what we know about the origins of special national worship in Ireland. It also shows how special worship became a recurrent focus and expression of religion and political contention during the seventeenth century.

Related Titles

Table of Contents

PrefaceSummary list of particular occasions of special worship, 1533-1688Reader's guide and editorial conventionsList of abbreviations: volume 1Introduction: General and 1533-1688Analytical list of particular occasions of special worship, 1533-2012Special worship and the Book of Common PrayerPrinters of official documentsTexts and Commentaries, 1533-1688

Reviews

This is a staggering volume, in every sense..[T]he wealth of material, and the scholarship and editorial accuracy, on display here across such a large volume demand as much awe as they do praise from any scholar who has the good sense to consult it..[It is] a superlative, volume: a revelatory introduction, deeply researched documented head-notes to every service, and lavish finding aids and bibliography. This is a triumph, and another jewel in the crown of the Church of England Record Society. JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY

This volume (and the whole set) will be a great resource to historians of various types: social, political, military, economic, printing, liturgy, devotion, and so on. The amount of material gathered is substantial, the detail of its presentation and commentary thorough, and the layout conducive to easy access. Thanks for such painstaking work are owed to the editors, their assistants, and the publisher. CATHOLIC HISTORICAL REVIEW